


safe

by orphan_account



Category: IT (2017), IT - Stephen King
Genre: M/M, based on the face holding scene in the new movie, pure fluff, you know the one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-17
Updated: 2017-09-17
Packaged: 2018-12-30 18:12:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12114363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Richie learns how to comfort Eddie when he really needs it.





	safe

**Author's Note:**

> from my tumblr: quick Reddie oneshot because I’m in love with these two and can’t stop thinking about how quick Richie was to comfort Eddie during the big attack scene. like, he’d obviously done it before. just saying.
> 
> which inspired this, enjoy!
> 
> UPDATE 5/24/18 AT 2AM: i HATE this fic, but since it's my first reddie fic and i almost always end up regretting the old stories i delete, i'll keep it for memory sake.

It wasn’t such a bad thing that he and Eddie had been forced into watching a movie alone.

Richie had known soon as Bill dipped out, saying he had too much homework to do ( _lamest_ excuse in the fucking book), Stan wouldn’t be too far behind. And just like he’d expected from The Man- he suddenly had studying to do too.

Still, it wasn’t bad really. His parents weren’t home (big whoop) so they were able to kick back on his couch and eat all the snacks they wanted. Alone.

In fact, it wasn’t bad at all. Being alone with Eddie.

It meant it would be all the more easy to pick on him without any of the others around to take the jabs instead. Eddie was always his favorite to get a reaction out of.

So he takes advantage of that almost as soon as the movie starts to play, faking a big yawn and slinging his arm around Eddie’s smaller frame.

“Gee Eds, it’s almost just like those fancy drive in movie dates, isn’t it?”

“You’d never be so lucky.” He doesn’t even have to look to see if Eddie’s rolled his eyes- but he does take note of the fact he doesn’t bother to push his arm away.

Instead it’s Richie who almost pulls away, faking a wounded injury as he sprawls back. Eddie only ignores him so he leans in again, letting his arm fall back into place around the smaller boy.

Hey, he hadn’t taken it off, so _fair game_ there.

He spends the rest of the beginning of the movie paying more attention to Eddie than what they’re watching.

He cracks a stellar joke, he makes a much needed comment (trust him, _very much needed_ ), he talks about how the doctor on the screen looks like he’d have the smallest dick in the world—

and he keeps it up all the while getting the occasional shove or _“will you shut the fuck up so I can hear what they’re saying?”_ from his little compandre.

A normal night, really.

And he comes to find he actually doesn’t mind the whole alone thing at all (something he’d already known in the back of his head) and maybe if he was a no brained wimp he would actually thank Bill and Stan for ditching later on.

Thankfully he isn’t, so he’ll keep his balls intact for yet another day. Richie’s almost ready to let out another good quip when he can feel Eddie stiffen under his arm.

He actually looks over at the TV, and sees it’s a commercial playing now, some big warning about a disease and the dangers of it. He watches as a woman’s exaggerated face flashes across the screen, almost looking like Freddy Krueger’s latest victim and before he can even say _“god I’d bone her”_ Eddie’s spoken up.

“You couldn’t actually buy the VHS so we wouldn’t have to watch dumb commercials?” he demands, there’s a certain edge to his voice that Richie catches but he’s not sure yet why it’s there.

So he just shoots back, “I’ll say, you could _at least_ take me out to dinner before you complain about how I treat you-“

but he stops when he notices Eddie’s starting to visually shake, his eyes still trained on the screen.

“Hey, Eds?”

He pulls back to get a good look at him and Eddie almost looks slack jawed, gaze set on what’s playing before him and all of the people who have whatever shit disease they’re advertising. He looks like he’s seen a ghost.

“Earth to Eddie.” Richie snaps his fingers and it only briefly causes Eddie to look at him before he turns back to the TV and there’s close up pictures now and before he knows it Eddie shoots up from the couch and to the bathroom.

Bewildered, Richie follows him, shouting, “You can’t go touching yourself over that one girl, the movie will come back on before you finish!”

Wise cracking is always his go to, even when he’s confused and worried and he can’t get his own bathroom door open.

He can hear Eddie making panicked noises from the other side and his banging on the door only slightly drowns them out.

“Shit, Eddie, come on-“

And then without warning the door swings open and Eddie looks like he could faint at any moment. He’s wheezing and his eyes are wider than before.

“Where’s your inhaler?!” Richie demands, and all Eddie can do is shake his head.

It’s not anywhere in the living room, it’s not in the backpack Eddie had left by the side of the couch, and when he hears Eddie’s almost gasping breathes get louder he decides _fuck it_ and rushes back to him.

He’s still not entirely sure what to do-but he’s got to do something and he’s got to do it fast-so Richie lets instinct kick in and he leans down next to Eddie, who had gotten to his knees on the bathroom floor.

“Hey, look at me.” Richie’s voice is soft, as soft as a voice coming from Richie Tozier can be. “Look at me Eds.”

But Eddie’s too busy still freaking out, so Richie cups his face in his hands and he gently moves his face towards his.

“You’re alright. You know that, right? You’re safe.”

There’s still some wheezing but Eddie’s frantic eyes are starting to slow from looking back and forth, so he figures it’s working and Richie does what Richie knows best: keeps talking.

“You’re okay, you’re with me. That means you’re the luckiest guy in the world. You can’t go and die on me like a wuss before we see how the movie ends.”

Eddie’s breathing is slowing now, his eyes still wide but fully focused on Richie. He notices that his breathing becomes more even each time he runs his thumb along his cheek, so he decides to keep doing it.

“It’s alright,” Richie continues to say and he says it until it really is alright again and Eddie’s fine.

Eddie isn’t quick to pull away, but when he does Richie swears his palms are burning.

There’s a few beats of silence until Eddie says, “Leprosy.”

“What?”

“The commercial,” Eddie insists. “That’s the disease they were talking about. It’s…”

He can tell Eddie’s about to go into one of his infamous rants about what all there is to an illness and how you can catch it but by the looks of things he doesn’t have it in him and he simply trails off.

Richie feels a sudden need to do it again-to comfort him-and so he does it in the best way he can with things having calmed down.

“It’s not as scary looking as _your_ face, yeah.”

And when Eddie tells him to “eat shit” and gets up to return to his spot on the couch, Richie knows things are back to normal just as quick as they’d changed.

Still-

how well that worked is a mental note he stores in the back of his head.

Because he’ll do it again if he ever needs to.


End file.
